U.S. coalition member killed in Afghanistan

September 19, 2008 9:42:00 AM PDT

AFGHANISTAN --

A roadside bomb hit a U.S.-led coalition convoy in western Afghanistan on Friday, killing one coalition member, while NATO troops in the south killed a civilian who did not heed their warnings to stop. Four civilians also died in an insurgent attack. The coalition did not provide other details on the victim's nationality or the exact location of the blast. The majority of the coalition troops in that region are American.

Militants regularly attack coalition and Afghan troops with roadside bombs in the country.

U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan in 2008 already have surpassed the record 111 deaths last year.

In the southern Kandahar province, meanwhile, troops fired on a truck that was heading directly for a NATO patrol Thursday, the military alliance said in a statement.

The truck failed to stop after several warnings were issued. The troops fired two shots into the vehicle, killing a civilian inside.

The statement did not say whether the civilian was driving.

"Incidents such as this are very regrettable, and our thoughts are with the families and friends of the casualty," the statement said.

Civilian deaths at the hands of foreign troops in Afghanistan are controversial and routinely worsen relations among the people, the government and the foreign troops in the country.

Meanwhile, insurgents fired rockets toward a NATO base in eastern Paktika province. The rockets missed their target and slammed into a field where civilians were working Friday, killing four people, including a child, the alliance said in a statement.

Separately, the U.S.-led coalition troops killed two suspected Taliban militants and detained six others during a raid in Surobi district of Kabul province, the coalition said.

The militants were killed in a gunfight after they attacked the coalition troops conducting the raid Thursday, the statement said.

A Taliban commander in the area was among the six militant's detained, the coalition said.

Afghanistan is seeing a resurgence of violence, even as the U.S. and NATO have poured thousands of new troops into the country nearly seven years after a U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban's hard-line Islamist regime.

More than 4,500 people - mostly militants - have died so far this year in insurgency-related attacks.